A wonderful but little-known fact about river otter pups: They hate swimming. They are afraid of water. Watching adult otters roll and play in the water, it's nearly impossible to picture, but most otter pups need a nudge from mom to enter the water their first few times.
As the babies struggle to understand their new surroundings, mom is never far away - Encouraging her pups toward success. And little by little, under their mother's watchful eye, the pups become the agile, gifted swimmers that we know and love...
...The swimmers that mom knew they were all along.
This scene of a mother otter preparing her pup for the waters seemed like an appropriate nursery gift for a dear friend and mom-to-be. Congratulations!